The Monkey (2025)

Dir: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy

Osgood Perkins abandons the serious tone of the Stephen King short story in favour of a more comedic and off-kilter approach that boasts some unforgettably excessive deaths

Having established himself within the independent horror scene over the past decade, American filmmaker Osgood Perkins managed to finally find mainstream success in 2024 with his critically acclaimed sleeper hit “Longlegs”. The incredibly tense and equally disturbing police procedural hugely benefited from an ingenious marketing campaign from distributor Neon. The increasingly cryptic marketing ploy from Neon piqued the interest of movie-goers, the horror community in particular with their release of disturbing photograph stills from the titular killer’s crime scenes. This level of anticipation that had built prior to its summer release resulted in “Longlegs” grossing a whopping $126.9 million at the box-office, by far the biggest commercial success of Perkins’ career, which in turn has brought more awareness to his latest film “The Monkey”.

Director Frank Darabont originally held the film rights to Stephen King‘s 1980 short story, having previously adapted several of King’s novellas into feature films, “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), “The Green Mile” (1999) and “The Mist” (2007). However, despite planning to adapt “The Monkey” for the big screen, nothing ever materialised. It was announced in 2023 that Perkins was hired to write and direct the eventual adaptation, with “Saw” and “Insidious” creator James Wan serving as producer under his Atomic Monster banner. Perkins long association with the horror genre is understandable given the 51-year-old’s early ties to the genre being the son of Anthony Perkins, who famously portrayed Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock‘s “Psycho” and its sequels. Oz himself portrayed a young Norman Bates in “Psycho II” at just 8 years old.

Having read the initial script from Atomic Monster, Perkins undertook extensive rewrites on “The Monkey” to create a more comedic tone. The filmmaker wanted to distinguish the project from other toy-related horror movies by focusing on the absurdity and randomness of death, having lost both his parents in headline-making fashion. Having lost his father, who was a closeted homosexual, to HIV in the early 90’s, Perkins also lost his mother Berry Berenson in 2001, as she was one of the passengers during the September 11 attacks. Having had to deal with these sudden onsets of grief in tragedy in his life, Perkins has come to believe that “everybody dies, sometimes in their sleep, sometimes in truly insane ways”, and it this mantra, which is quoted in the film itself, that serves as the backbone to this adaptation of “The Monkey”.

The titular “monkey” comes in the form of a drum-playing toy (changed from cymbals due to copyright issues), which is discovered by identical twin brothers Bill and Hal (Christian Convery) amongst their absent father’s possessions. Prompted by an instruction on the monkey to “turn the key, and see what happens”, Bill winds up the monkey, and later that evening the monkey plays its drum while the boys are out for dinner, resulting in the accidental decapitation of their babysitter Annie.

The slightly older Bill, having been born a matter of minutes before Hal, repeatedly asserts dominance over his twin brother, evoking the latter to wind up the monkey once more believing it to be responsible for the babysitter’s death. Following a couple more fatal accidents that occur once the monkey has been activated, the boys decide to dispose of it down a local well.

Twenty Five years later in the present day, Hal (Theo James) is estranged from Bill and his own son Petey (Colin O’Brien) , whom he only sees once a year out of fear the monkey will return. During the final week with his son before losing custody permanently to his ex-wife (Laura Mennell) and her new partner Ted (Elijah Wood), Hal is contacted by Bill who informs his brother that their Aunt Ida has died in a freak accident. Knowing that the monkey has indeed returned, Hall sets out with his son to end the monkey’s curse for good, before anyone else is inexplicably killed.

Now on his fifth feature film as a director, all being in the horror genre, Perkins has clearly settled on an aesthetic when it comes to his work. Despite a huge shift in tone from all his previous works, “The Monkey” sees Perkins continue to highlight the cold and bleak nature of humanity, by adopting a blue and brown colour palette, which when juxtaposed with the film’s unserious and cartoonish nature, results in an off-kilter and otherworldly sense of surrealism. “The Monkey” very much takes place in the real world, a world where death can raise hits head any minute in a number of bizarre ways, however, with some uncanny performances from the supporting cast, and with a central setting of a rather peculiar town Maine, it also has a dreamlike quality to it, which works with the movie’s comedic approach but detracts from the horror elements.

The short story from which it is based is very serious in tone, exploring the loss of childhood innocence and the nature of evil. With this film adaptation though, the monkey is never seen as a villain, more as a curse, or even a weapon, that is used to do the bidding of an actual villain who has been added into this modern script. The manner in which numerous people meet their fate is gloriously gory, and any true horror aficionado will be joyous at the sight of the gruesome decapitations, explosions and disembowelments that take the lives of those in the monkey’s twisted plans, however there is very little in the way of tension before the monkey fatally strikes its drum throughout the movie.

The Rube Goldberg inspired deaths harken back to the way death and fate play their part in the “Final Destination” franchise, another horror series that adopts the everyone dies philosophy. While they may not be the best films in the world, the stress-inducing manner in which “Final Destination” sets up the eventual demise of its death-dodging victims is unrivalled, and has seen the franchise continue to this very day with a sixth instalment coming later this year. Unfortunately, this is where “The Monkey” falters. Despite boasting some hilarious and unnecessarily gory kills, they largely feel unwarranted by utilising hazards and mechanisms that have not been foreshadowed previously. The film in general has very little setup, clocking in at a brisk 98 minutes, everything feels too rushed, including the bloody set pieces. We are well into the movie second half when an adult Hal, brilliantly played by Theo James as one part of an impressive dual role, finds out that the monkey has returned.

James and the supporting cast all understand Perkins vision which works in the film’s favour, with Christian Convery and Tatiana Maslany both excelling in the film’s tragedy-stricken first act. There are also some fun cameos and bit-parts throughout the film, none of which I will spoil as they make for a nice surprise adding to the films offbeat nature.

The best way to describe “The Monkey” is that it is a film of vibes. If you go along with the twisted and darkly comedic vibes set by Perkins, then there is a great time to be had. Those who do not like sick humour, or gore, will absolutely hate it, and its nihilistic tone.

A stark contrast to Stephen King’s source material, Osgood Perkins has managed to re-imagine “The Monkey” as a absurdly gory dark comedy, which has been approved by the legendary horror writer himself. Whilst it lacks the depth or narrative strength to solidify it as one of the great King adaptations, there is plenty of fun to be had if you are able to go along with its off-brand humour.

The Monkey is now showing in UK Cinemas

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